A Basis and Thesis of Inventory
by garon604
Summary: Stories based on various Neopian items.
1. Alabaster

Fanfare trumpets blasted in front of the Golden Dubloon. The entire place was unrecognizable: everything had been changed for the wedding of Princess Alabaster of the Lost Desert.

"All hail the groom!" said the Innkeeper of the Golden Dubloon. He didn't care that such an event was being held in his establishment and drove out customers all day; the King was giving him triple his monthly wages to host the wedding.

All the Krawk Islanders cheered as the Groom, a smug male Royal Usul from Meridell, stepped out from the basement where the Krawps games were normally played (the area had been cleared to make it look like an actual wedding establishment). He strutted down the aisle pompously and stood by the altar, looking towards the stairs he had just ascended. The bride should be coming out any second now...

The crowd waited, restless. Not many knew why the King of the Lower Mentu Region, King Sobek, had decided to host his younger daughter's wedding at Krawk Island. Many people had theories: could something bad be happening at the Lost Desert? Was there some sort of peril he was trying to avoid in other regions of Neopia?

No one but the king knew, for Sobek was wise and did not easily give out crucial information that may eventually affect him. All the Krawk Islanders and the people of the Lower Mentu Region knew was that they should try their best to attend the wedding at the prospect of the gifts that they would receive. However, they greatly doubted the prospect of young Princess Alabaster's marriage because it was common knowledge that she valued the art of battling above many other things in her life.

These thoughts ran through everybody's mind as they waited expectantly, every single person in the room looking at the door where the Princess was to soon emerge. After nearly fifteen minutes, they heard a rustling noise, a scream, something that sounded like heavy things falling on the ground, and someone rushing up the stairs as a door slammed.

It was King Sobek that appeared at the summit of the stairwell. He looked like a horrid mess, his normally well-kept dark hair sticking out all over his head and his crown askew. "Nothing... nothing to worry about!" he told the astonished crowd as they gasped at his appearance. He got out his handkerchief and dabbed his sweaty brow with it as he glanced out of a window behind him. "Nothing, nothing to worry about..."

Actually, little did the crowd know that there iwas/i something to worry about. There had been a commotion down in the basement between Alabaster and her father.

"But father!" she had screamed, as numerous make-up Aishas made her look her best for the wedding. "I don't want to marry Prince Shala-what's-his-face! He's a total jerk; I can't stand him at all! All he does is talk about his finances and his 'Petpet-farming' and his 'archery'..."

"Now Alabaster," her father scolded, looking up towards the ceiling as the fanfare trumpets blasted. "You know that in order to keep the peace between the Lower Mentu Region of the Lost Desert and Western Meridell, we must unite our eldest children once every three decades! It is courtesy law, it is an agreement, it is-"

"I don't care what it is, father!" Alabaster yelled as the crowd began to cheer above the argument. In her mind's eye, she could just imagine the Prince walking down the alleyway; his eyes closed in a royal manner and his arm poised with his hand relaxed as if he were holding a fan, which he probably was. This visual image only angered the Usul more, and she punched the droopy, ugly part of her pure-white wedding dress.

"Your Majesty, the make-up is done!" said one of the servant Aishas as she put away her blush and eye shadow inside a large metal box on the desk.

"Ah, thank you," said King Sobek as the servant bowed and left the room to go up a service stair that would lead her to the audience in the wedding. "Come along, my daughter: the Prince will be expecting us."

"No! I don't want to go! I look ridiculous," she said after looking in the mirror. She leaned back against the chair and crossed her arms in a stubborn way, like a small child who didn't want to eat their vegetables.

"No, you don't!" her father said, chuckling and patting her on the back. "You look gorgeous!"

On a regular day, even the Princess herself might have admitted that. Alabaster's long brown locks were curled and flew right to her shoulder in little spirals, each one looking like a crazy-straw that, for some reason, could not get stuck in her crown-diamond necklace set with a beautiful carved jewel at the very center that hung around her neck. Her make-up was applied expertly, so that one couldn't even see her gigantic pimple that had sprouted on her forehead two weeks ago. And her wedding dress: top of the brand import from Terror Mountain. As white as the snow and, if hung on a coat hanger, would probably be taller than King Sobek himself, it was like every young girl's dream.

However, Alabaster was still displeased. Her father made an attempt to grab her wrist and pull her up to the wedding, but she resisted and struggled out of his powerful grip.

"Why, my daughter? Why?"

"I'm not going to! You can't make me!"

"Wait - Alabaster - no!"

She had risen out of her chair with such force that it fell right over on to the desk, spilling the contents of the make-up box, a good number of hair clips from another, smaller box, and other accessories concealed inside various drawers. The desk itself toppled over and the mirror on top of it smashed. A servant Aisha who had come down the stairs to see what had happened to the princess screamed at the sight of all the smashed items, and Sobek turned around to see what had caused the scream. This was, in Alabaster's opinion, a great opportunity to run away from the betrothal and to forget about it forever.

As quickly as possible, she dashed over to the service stair and ran up. At the top, she reached two doors. One door was labeled "Patio Dock" and another "Main Restaurant". She opened the one that led to the patio and ran in, being sure to slam the door as loudly as she could behind her.

The dock was just a gigantic plank. Alabaster went down to the end of it, taking care not to trip over her long wedding dress, and looked down. She estimated that the distance it must be from the plank to the wavering waters beneath her must've been at least a few hundred feet.

The Usul momentarily regretted her elopement, but she heard the heavy footsteps of her father running up the stairs behind her. She proclaimed to the sky, "A thousand feet is not enough to separate me from him! Even if I must swim one hundred miles from here to the other side of Neopia to get away from that - Prince - then I will! bI will!/b"

With her final words, the door opened with a slam behind her. Her father had heard her, and the King could only yell "NOOOO!" as Alabaster closed her eyes, put her hands together and jumped into the sea, wedding dress and all. The cold water surrounded her as she began to swim as fast she could, her father then returning to the scene described above.

When night began to descend, the tired Usul swam ashore. The moon and the stars were shining brightly that particular night, with an especially bright, golden star that hung directly over Faerieland. Some in the Lost Desert, where the star can most directly be seen, say that the star was the Star of Wishing.

"Oh, bright Star of Wishing! I wish I could get out of this…" Alabaster yelled towards the sky. Despite her agility, strength, and stubbornness she was actually beginning to cry now, her tears mingling in with the ocean water that seeped from her long-since ruined hair. She had been swimming ever since she had left the Golden Dubloon because she was afraid of search fleets that King Sobek might send out. Alabaster knew that if she were caught, she would be in much more trouble than just marrying the prince.

The star far above her seemed to twinkle a little bit, but the Usul had long since lost sight of the star because of her tears. Alabaster, sobbing away quietly next to the moon-lit ocean, felt a small nudge at the end of her wedding dress and looked up to see what was tugging on the ends of her outfit.

She found a small Krawk, strong-looking and brave, nibbling at her sand-covered ends of the wedding dress. With a scream, she pulled it away from the Petpet's grip and backed away further on to the beach. The Krawk, being small in size, ended up falling flat on his face with a small 'thump' on the sand. It then got up, closed his eyes, and shook his head, dazed.

Despite being cold and afraid on a northern, desolate shore of Krawk Island, Alabaster managed to let out a small giggle after seeing the Krawk's silly behavior. She decided that the Krawk could be her potential companion, even if it was only a Petpet.

Smiling, the Usul looked up to see that they were at the base of a stairwell that led to two small caves. She knew that the one on the right was the infamous Smuggler's Cove that sold pirated but rare items and was most likely already inhabited, so she decided to ascend the staircase, carrying the Krawk like she would a baby, and bivouac in the left cave.

Inside the cave, there was only a murky, green river that flowed between the fungus-covered walls. Camping near the cave entrance, she stared up towards the night sky with the small Krawk as her tears slowly began to subside. Alabaster slowly began to doze off to sleep, feeling peaceful and relaxed in the strange but somewhat-homey environment. The Usul didn't even notice her new Petpet wandering from the warmth of her body and begin to nibble some of the fungus from the walls…

Alabaster awoke to the sounds of crashing waves on the beach of Krawk Island. She sat up and stretched, yawning luxuriously. It took her a few moments to remember what had transpired since the wedding, and instantly tears began to fill her eyes again. Before any managed to come out, the Usul noticed that her Krawk friend was gone.

'Krawk?' she whispered nervously into the deep depths of the cave. Alabaster stood up and slowly began creeping further inside, following the rushing river. A strange dripping noise came from the ceiling, followed by a mysterious panting noise.

The Usul turned a corner and came face to face with a Green Krawk standing on its hind-legs. Alabaster screamed and ran back around the corner, leaving the Krawk with a confused expression. She slowly peered over the wall again, cautious of the monster that was there waiting for her.

To her surprise, she found nothing there but small drops of water that were falling from the dark ceiling. Relieved, she turned around only to find the Krawk standing before her, this time with a grin.

Alabaster screamed again at the sight, and was about to run deep into the caverns when she realized that this was HER Krawk friend. She now recalled stories where Krawks that went into a strange cave near Smuggler's Cove often came back different, though she had never seen proof of such an event before.

Slowly, she reached out to pat the Krawk's paw, but he pulled it back and snapped his jaws a handbreadth from her bangs. The Usul did not scream, but bent back a little as to avoid the sharp fangs that protruded from his mouth. The fact that the large Krawk was graceful enough to even elude her, combined with the fact that he did seem pretty loyal and adorable in its own way, opened up a grimy window inside of her and let the sunlight of passion flow into her.

'Would you like to come with me and join me on my adventures and be christened as Slither?' Alabaster asked it, her eyes sparkling now with happy tears instead of ones of sorrow. Though the Krawk could not talk, the Usul felt that it had a basic understanding of words that she said and she felt that she might even be able to expand his vocabulary in their future adventures to come so that they could work even better with one another. The Krawk slowly twisted its mouth into a smile and nodded, emitting a strange, barking-noise from its throat.

As he did, a shouting plea came from outside. There was a loud scream that pierced the air like a silver dart before it faded away, leaving Alabaster's ears ringing.

Quickly, Alabaster said, 'Someone's in trouble! Quickly, we have to help them!'

With that, she leapt on to Slither's back, and he stealthily bounded out of the cave in about five long jumps. When the Usul got outside, she saw what the commotion was: a maiden, who looked like a Make-Up Aisha from her wedding, had been bound in ropes and captured, and was now being carried by two chubby pirates into the Smuggler's Cove. Just recently, it looked like her mouth had been covered with what looked like her father's own handkerchief to prevent any screaming.

'Follow the pirates,' Alabaster whispered to Slither as the last one disappeared into the dark depths of the merchant cove. Slither nodded and crept into the darkness. The Usul assumed that he could see in the dark, since it was pitch-black and the Krawk seemed to know where he was going.

After following the tunnel for about ten minutes, they got to a large cavern. A roof in the ceiling above them let in a single ray of bright sunshine, which fell directly upon the captured maiden. A group of about eight or nine pirates, none of which noticed the Usul atop of the Krawk, circled her with menacing smiles, cracking their knuckles and chuckling to themselves.

One of them stopped and stepped towards the prisoner, 'This'd be some good loot, matey. Aye, me bucko... Th' kin' will pay, arghhh. Them scallywags be takin a long walk on a short plank to get her!'

Suddenly, Alabaster realized who the prisoner was. It was none other than Princess Sultic, one of her sisters that had attended as a bridesmaid. She knew that she could not allow Sobek to pay whatever price the pirates offered. The Usul knew she had to rescue her!

Eyeing the walls, she spied a mithril sword and a mysterious shield lying near the entrance of the cove. Silently, she scooped them, as well as some iron armour, coloured red, lying underneath them. Quick as a flash, equipped all of the weapons and armour, and charged into the center of the circle of rotating pirates.

The pirates were slow and took a few moments to realize what had appeared before their eyes: a Usul dressed with their latest loot! They could not stand it, and raised their scimitars to charge.

Alabaster wouldn't have had stood a chance if she had not ever practiced her sword-fighting skills before. With the strength of a boar and the grace of a swan, she struck each of the pirates down, knocking them unconscious for a few hours. After the battle, she scooped up the form of her sister, and Slither sped out the cave before any more pirates could come. The Krawk continued to run at a fast speed, never stopping, until they got to the Dubloon o' Matic.

In front of the strange machine, Alabaster untied her sister and allowed her to speak. 'Alabaster?' she said in frenzy as soon as she was free to talk and move freely again. 'What happened? Father and the prince and all of those people are looking for you – '

'They cannot be allowed to find me,' Alabaster said to her sister. 'Sultic, listen closely: I will be going away from the Lost Desert – '

'You mean like on a vacation?' the Aisha said, her eyes sparkling.

Alabaster paused at the strange comparison. 'Yes, a vacation – a long one. Anyway, Father or the Prince or anybody that you know must not be allowed to know that you met me. When you go back to the Golden Dubloon, tell them that you snuck out yourself when the pirates were asleep. Do you understand?'

Sultic seemed disoriented by her capture and her sister's strange speech, but she nodded before asking, 'But dear sister – where will you go?'

The Usul laughed harshly with a small amount of amusement. 'Me? If you truly wish to find me, then I will be a thousand miles away from here…'

And with that, Alabaster got back on to Slither, and both of them headed towards the horizon, where the sun was beginning to set. Sultic watched them go into the reddening seas and swim, never even looking back once. However, she did think that she saw a hand rise in a final farewell before she fainted on to the ground, fast asleep.


	2. The Korbat from Krawk Island

iNobody knew his name, mainly because nobody would dare to ask.../i

The Korbat walked into the classroom, a red bandana tied around his head. He had the appearance of a Pirate, as he was painted so. The row of fangs that protruded out of his mouth was wooden and he was wearing only an un-zipped vest and a wide pair of sweatpants. One of his large ears was chipped at one part and the other had a golden ring in it. Thankfully, his legs were both made from flesh and not wood, and he carried no sword or dagger.

"Class," said Miss Candy, an Island Kacheek that was teaching our fifth grade class. "We have a new student joining us today. His name…"

She stopped there and looked down at the new student. He stared back at her with a mindless stare, his left pupil rapidly shrinking and growing and saliva dripping out of his mouth. "Umm…"

"Yarr!" he said, in a heavy pirate accent. Without being assigned a seat, he walked through the narrow space between the wooden desks until he stopped in front of Feo's desk, which was directly northeast from mine.

Feo was an extremely sassy Desert Aisha. She had been only a plain Yellow Aisha when I befriended her, but during summer vacation her owner won the lottery. She came back with the most stylish clothing and a bursting make-up box, though she rejected popularity to hang out with me. Feo, however, still acted bratty and gave Memi, a Yellow Lutari and the most popular girl in their entire school, a run for her money when it came to behavioral issues.

The Pirate Korbat looked at Feo, his eyes now beginning to cross. The Aisha was in the middle of doing her nails, a regular classroom routine, with a file and only looked up when she realized that the entire room was quiet and looking at her.

"What, have I grown too beautiful?" she said, looking around. Then she saw the Pirate Korbat looking at her.

"You're purdy!" he said, his voice cracking.

It took her less than half a second to respond. "Ew, gross!" she said, spluttering. Feo got out a bottle of pepper-spray and got him right in the eyes. He only blinked and drooled once more, so, trying to prevent the waves of gossip that would come, she pulled out her blush and slammed it right across his face. He went flying into the air, opening his wings so that he would not crash right on to the ground.

In front of me and to the left of her, our other friend, Suki the Jelly Quiggle, laughed. He was a very easygoing person and didn't seem to mind hanging with girls all of the time.

"Now Feo, that is enough!" said Miss Candy. "I'm sure that even though he is an extremely ugly being and most likely has no potentia for anythingl, there is most likely something good in him!"

At this point, the Pirate Korbat spat a glob of spit right over another student's head. It landed on the ground with a big splat and it turned out to be a piece of tar. "Err… deep, deep inside of him." stammered the teacher once again.

The Pirate Korbat, apparently not hearing anything that anybody was saying, then found a seat that was empty and, instead of sitting on it, turned it around and hung upside down from the top of it.

The lesson then continued. Ignoring everything that Miss Candy was teaching about the philosophy of ancient Maraquans, my female, Baby Usul form leaned over my desk to join the conversation that Suki and Feo were having.

"I think he's a witch in disguise!" said Suki in a low whisper. "Just look at him!"

"The less I do of that, the better!" replied Feo, throwing the blush she had slapped him with into the rubbish bin. "What a shame; I actually liked that shade…"

"Why not give him a chance, you guys?" I said. "He can't be all that bad."

"Are you kidding me, Rey? He just totally ruined my social career in front of the entire class. I may never eat another lunch at this school again!" Feo said dramatically, now taking out another shade of blush which was the exact same colour that she had just thrown out. "Everybody's going to look at me like I'm a –"

"Feo! Suki! Rey!" Miss Candy said, slapping a yardstick on to each of their desks as she yelled their names. "Are you paying attention?"

"Yes, ma'am!" they all said in unison, their faces beginning to glow red (or, in Feo's blush-covered case, yellow).

"Good! Now pay attention! You will have a very important pop quiz on this material next week!" she said, throwing the yardstick back on to the roof above their desks.

After she had her back turned to the blackboard once more, Suki quickly opened his notebook and began to copy down all the notes he had missed from the person sitting to the other side of him. Meanwhile, Feo and I continued to converse.

"I want to know where that creep came from! Why is he so weird?" Feo demanded to me, though I could not reply as I didn't know. "There's something very awry with that kid, and I want to find out…"

"Do you want me to come with you?" I offered. I find that the more help and reassurance Feo got in her times of desperation, the more quickly she calmed down.

"Yes! I need someone with an actual IQ count to come with me." Feo replied. "We'll follow him back home after school…"

She took a pencil with a small mirror attached to the end of it and poked Suki with it. He did not turn around and seemed to ignore her, concentrating on what Miss Candy was saying at the front of the class. Feo then used a renewed force and poked him repeatedly until the pencil ended up getting stuck inside of his stomach. Finally, he put down the MSPP Pen he was using and turned around.

"What do you want?" he hissed, keeping one eye looking to the front.

"We're going to follow that new kid around and see why he's such a freakazoid!" Feo said, her voice rising higher and louder. "Come with?" At that moment, they heard a sound from the back of the classroom and they all turned to look at the Pirate Korbat. He was still hanging upside down, though he was asleep and his mouth was open, drooling all over his face.

"Doesn't seem like anything's off with me," Suki joked, now picking up his pen to write again. "Alright, alright, I'll come with you guys…" he said, shrinking after a threatening look from Feo.

"This is it!" Miss Candy was there once again. "If you make one more peep until this class is over – "

At that precise moment, the bell rang, signaling the end of school. The Kacheek Teacher was nearly trampled as all of the students rushed out of the door like a herd of wild wildebeests crossing a river.

"Saved by the bell!" Suki laughed, picking up his notebook and pen as we were swept out of the classroom.

After everybody including Miss Candy had left, the Pirate Korbat awoke from his slumber, his eyes glinting red. He wiped the drool off his face and took off his wooden fang-guard, revealing a row of shiny but sharp teeth. The Korbat spread his wings and flew out of the open window in a whoosh of air.

"Can't vengeance come after dinner?" Suki groaned, his stomach rumbling. He, Feo, and I were sitting at the base of a large tree right next to the sidewalk.

"Vengeance is a dish best served as soon as possible," said Feo, pulling out an apple from her make-up kit. "Here, eat this."

As Suki took the fruit, I noticed a dark shape fly out of the window of our classroom. "Guys, look! It's him!" I said excitedly, pointing up at the sky.

The other two looked up. "Quick! Follow him!" Feo screamed, pointing up at the sky. As Suki and I started running as fast as we could, our Aisha friend pulled out a collapsible scooter from behind the tree and unfolded it. Stepping on a Virtupets-V where the brakes should have been, it let out a gigantic puff of smoke and, with a stream of fire from the tailpipe, she blasted off into the same direction in dead pursuit of the flying figure in the sky.

"Hey, wait for us!" I yelled, panting. Suki finished the apple and threw what was left of it into a garbage can. Using energy he just received from the food, he took me by the hand, rolled into fetal position, and started bouncing through the streets, following the fiery scooter.

Soon, both scooter and bouncing Quiggle stopped in front of a wooden Neohome made in the likeness of a pirate ship. "I saw him land here and go inside," Feo explained, folding her scooter and putting it on the edge of the charred grass in front of the house.

"Let's try going around it into the backyard," said Suki. "There might be some portholes or windows we can look through…"

Being as unobtrusive as possible, we crept around the rickety Neohome and into the backyard. The only thing there was a shed (or was it an outhouse?) and a few broken toys.

"Guys, I'm scared…" said Suki, turning around to go back. However, before he could, vines grew out of the ground and twisted around each of their bodies, preventing them from escaping.

"What's going on?" Feo screamed.

"I told you he was a witch!" Suki yelled back, struggling to pull himself free while not decapitating his jelly form.

"Guys, we're getting pulled to that shed or possible outhouse – "

Before I could finish, a separate set of vines sprouted from the ground and opened the door, revealing what looked like a twister of darkness embedded into the ground. One by one, the vines each threw us into it before they retreated back into the soil.

After what felt like only a few seconds, we were on a large piece of green jelly.

Without Suki.

"Suki?" I screamed, looking around frantically. Feo did the same thing, though she remained silent in her panic (for once).

"I'm down here," came a muffled voice from underneath them. Looking into the jelly, they found the shape of a Red Quiggle stuck in the very center.

Overjoyed, I yelled, "Suki! How did you get there?"

"Who cares, we need to get him out!" Feo yelled at me, though she was only a few inches away from me. "We're coming Suki!"

Taking out a mirror, she began scooping her way towards the pet. "What, this thing's gotta be, like, a gazillion calories!" she responded to my bewildered stare.

However, the Aisha's efforts were to no avail. Every time she scooped out a small bit of jelly, more of the lime-flavored dessert ended up taking its place.

"It's no use!" Feo screamed, stating the obvious.

"Just – just go on without me!" said Suki, one eye closed. "I'll – I'll alright!"

"You sure?" I asked. He nodded, and I hesitantly replied, "Alright… come on Feo, let's go find that creep…"

Feo and I climbed off of the jelly and observed our surroundings. We were in a dank hallway, lit only by torches fitted into brackets that were lined on the ceiling. A dusty, blood red carpet was on the ground that went in the direction of the only way the hallway led: forward.

Tentatively, the two Neopets began walking down it. It seemed to go on forever, the blank, wooden walls, though featureless, mocking them as they emulated themselves many times. Finally, after about ten minutes, they could see a light ahead.

"Let's go!" I said, beckoning to Feo. She raised her mirror like she would a sword and nodded.

They walked the rest of the way and found themselves in a dark, stone, dome-shaped room. A single ray of sunshine shined in through the ceiling, casting a shadow over the silhouette of what looked like a Pirate Korbat.

"You!" Feo screamed, running forwards. When she got to the stream of sunlight, she angled her mirror so that the light bounced off of it and lighted up the ugly Korbat.

I screamed in surprise. Instead of his old poor-looking outfit, he now resembled a Halloween Korbat with a few pirate aspects to his appearance, though his pupils were still distorted.

"Welcome, my dears," he said with his old pirate accent, though his voice was deeper. "I've been waiting for you here…"

"What do you want with us?" screamed Feo. "How did you know we were going to come?"

"Oh please, didn't you know that all vampire Pirate Korbats can still hear things in their sleep?" he said, laughing. And from the walls, his laughter was joined by a steady stream of laughter. "I heard you ranting about me in class, Feo. If you really feel that way about me…"

"I do!" she screamed before anybody could do anything. "You – you creep!"

"Very well, then," he said, a dark expression falling on his face. He clapped, and the sunlight went out, only to be replaced with a phosphorescent glow from the walls. "Family! This is why I did not go grocery shopping today…"

Both Neopets did not listen to what he last said because, from the new light source, they could see that on every possible perch on the walls there was a Korbat that looked exactly like him: large fangs, creepy cape, diminished ear. And all of them looked very hungry.

"R… r – run!" I screamed. Feo threw her mirror at the Pirate Korbat and ran back the other way towards the only exit. However, they discovered that it had been covered by a gigantic vampire Korbat that had been hanging over the doorway before.

"We're done for now!" Feo screamed. She took out her make-up kit and quickly applied blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and lipstick to herself.

"What are you doing?" I screamed as the Korbats advanced on us, forcing us to go to the center of the room where the beam of sunlight was before.

"If I'm going to get eaten, I might as well do it beautifully!" she replied back. She took out a bottle of pepper spray and, mistaking it as perfume, nearly pressed the nozzle when it was right in front of her face.

"Wait!" I said, grabbing her wrist. "That's not perfume, that's pepper –"

I stopped in mid-sentence. An idea formed inside my brain. "Quick, read the ingredients of that thing!"

"Alright, but I'm not sure how intelligence will help us now…" she said, turning the bottle over and looking at the label. Reading in dim light, she recited, "Essence of Cornupeppers, carbonated liquids, carbon dioxide, lost hopes, and garlic."

"Garlic! That's it!" I screamed. Taking the pepper spray from her hand, she began to spray the closest vampire Pirate Korbats with it. They all turned away and fainted, only to be replaced by more.

"You're a genius!" Feo exclaimed. She took out about half a dozen other bottles and, three in each hand, began spraying as many as she could.

But, it was to no avail. There were just too many, and soon, each of their seven bottles was dropped on the floor, empty. The Korbats, pleased with their victory, prepared to begin their prolonged dinner.

However, at that precise moment, a male voice called their names. "Feo! Rey! Where are you guys?"

A giant thumping came from the hallway, and, though the giant vampire Pirate Korbat tried to stop the creature's advance, it pushed its way into the room, swallowing the vicious Neopet into its stomach.

"Suki! You made it out!" I cried in happiness. Though he was now a gigantic jelly Quiggle with a huge belly in which a mirror pencil and vampire now resided in, he was still their old, loveable friend.

"Yep, I totally did!" he replied back, waving. "I just ate a bit of the jelly, and since I was jelly, I ended up replacing the jelly I just ate. I had to eat all of the jelly to get out, but at least I'm free!"

"Yes you are," Feo said. "But if you don't free ius/i, we're going to wind up like all of that jelly you just ate!"

"Oh – " Suki replied, looking pompously at all of the Korbats that still surrounded the two female Neopets, though their attentions were now focused on the gigantic jelly thing that had just entered their liar. "Why didn't you say so from the first place?"

He rushed forward and instantly consumed all of the vampire Pirate Korbats inside his stomach.

"Thanks a lot, Suki!" said Feo. She rushed up to hug him, but found that since he was over twelve feet tall such a feat would be near impossible.

"Don't mention it,' said Suki, smiling and waving. "Though, this does mean that I'll be this size forever…"

"Oh, don't worry," I said in a reassuring voice. "Once everything digests, we can scoop all the excess jelly out of you. Now, come on, let's go home…"

At school the next Monday, Suki was back to normal and we were all recounting our wondrous experience of the past week. However, before the school bell rang, in walked the Pirate Korbat, now looking like a normal Pirate Korbat.

"Hello Suki, Feo, Rey," he said to each of us as he passed our desks, smiling.

"What do you want, loser?" Feo snarled, giving him a look of disgust.

"I just wanted to apologize for what happened last week," he said, oblivious to Feo's expression. "Those Korbats, they entranced me in their strange spell. I did not mean anything that happened. Suki, I thank you for consuming them when your belly was of gigantic proportions."

"Don't mention it," he said, patting his now regular-sized stomach.

"So, Korbat," I asked, as he took the seat behind Feo that was to the right of me, "What is your name?"

"My name is –" But at that precise moment, Miss Candy walked in, carrying a large stack of papers.

"Oh, no," said Suki, looking horrified. "Don't tell me it was today – "

"Class, close all of your books and get out your pens and papers, as it's time for your test on the philosophy of ancient Maraquans!" Miss Candy seemed to squirm with delight as she moved down the rows, handing out papers to everyone.

Since we did not take any notes or study at all during the weekend, Feo, Pirate Korbat, and I had no clue what to write on it except for our names. With this idea in mind, I leaned over and glanced at his test, searching for the name space.

In it, he had written, "Seiji."

iPart of the Neopian Book Series./i

---

COMMENTS: Thanks to dubloon for letting me use sukiyosukiyo, frazeocity for letting me use fouraredone, and xxbandgeek for letting me use MissCandyGirl7.


	3. The Princess Letters

iNOTE: This story alternates points of view from Princesses Sankara and Vyssa. The letters are signed by whichever sister wrote it, but just keep in mind that the order is supposed to be Sankara – Vyssa – Sankara – ect. Also, this story takes place in the year 2000 human-time, so it is before Coltzan's Usurper. Coltzan who? Well, it's okay, you're new, you'll catch on soon enough. )/i

bThe 3rd Day of the Month of Running/b

My dear sister,

I know that when the royal family awoke this morning, they entered the new day without me. This is because I have gathered a small party (architects, warriors, and builders) from the early-morning streets of Sakhamet and have paid them to come with me, back to the Fourth Khonsu Dysnasty. Now that I am 19, I can take the throne as Queen without any fear. With the help of my group, I will successfully regain my throne and make my Father proud – wherever he is. If you need to Neomail me, please address it to the Fourth Khonsu Dynasty, Lost Desert South.

I will never forget the help the Royal family gave me. I shall come back to visit one day.

Sincerely,

iPrincess Sankara/i

bThe 14th Day of the Month of Running/b

Sankara,

My father, Coltzan, and I knew that someday, such an event was eventually going to happen. We realized that you would eventually have a desire to go back and reclaim your own kingdom instead of being imprisoned in ours. Daddy expresses regret in your departure but wishes you all the best. He and I still remember the fateful day that you stumbled upon our kingdom, about ten years ago. It was on the shimmering morning after a long sandstorm that you appeared in the distance. I remember pulling back the curtains and seeing what looked like a beggar covered completely in sand approaching the gateway. I immediately ran downstairs to see what the figure was, but Coltzan had beaten me to it. I watched from a window him communicating with the figure, nodding his head and looking grave, before inviting the person in. I am sorry to say this now, but I felt an immense sense of annoyance towards your arrival. It would mean you getting treated better than I and having someone below me living with us. I am past that now, and wish that such thoughts never even came to my mind.

I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors.

iVyssa/i

bThe 17th Day of the Month of Running/b

Dear Vyssa,

Thank you for the last letter; it truly was touching that you, er, cared enough in the end. I remember that day well; my father had told me to leave and head north for Sakhmet City and seek the help of Coltzan while we were invaded. It took me two long weeks of traversing through the sandstorm, but I managed to arrive in time. I can still remember the expressions of happiness I felt when Coltzan agreed to invite me in.

I am now at the site of the old palace. It is in utter ruins, but I hope to scavenge what I can and maybe make our kingdom great again.

From,

iSankara/i

bThe 15th Day of the Month of Eating/b

Sankara,

That's awesome Flotsam! I really do hope that everything goes right again with you guys.

I went shopping at the Sakhmet City Markets the other day. You should see the utter state of chaos it's in; there're Ummagines flying everywhere. Luckily I managed to find the cutest little silk shop selling only the latest styles for a Princess: a Uni coif and the cutest Kau mini-dress you ever saw. I went to the shopkeeper to find some in size 0, but apparently there weren't any. How is a Princess supposed to shop anymore when all the shops don't carry her size? Humph. If you see any cute clothing items at the remains of your destroyed castle, you gotta send them over to me!

Oh, by the way, Coltzan's 61st birthday is coming up on the 2nd Day of the Month of Relaxing, and it'd be spectacularly delicious if you could make it. That'd make him really happy and maybe he'll remember you for an extra year.

iLove from Princess Vyssa/i XOXOXO

bThe 27th Day of the Month of Eating/b

My dear Vyssa,

Urgh, that really stinks! At least you even have clothing shops; everything here is just sand, ruin, sand, ruin, cursed object… All I've managed to do so far is find some food to feed my helpers and make a small underground living shelter. The palace's design is only at its drawing stage so far.

I will try and spare some time and plan a trip to go back to Sakhmet for Coltzan's birthday. I've got about 1 month, you say? I'm sure I can arrive in time, now that there's no sandstorm.

Your loving half-sister,

iSankara/i

bThe 7th Day of the Month of Relaxing/b

Sanksy,

You left so quickly, you didn't even see it happen… I still can't believe Coltzan had to die… my own father! How could this have happened? He was so strong, so powerful, it almost seemed like he'd live forever… what am I going to do with all of his fortune? Buy size-6 denim overalls? I should really go to Terror Mountain to go shopping, but I can't bring a treasury along with me now, can I?

Anyways, I just feel so bad that daddy had to die… I just wish I knew what the sand-eating Cobrall was thinking when he poisoned him! I want to punish that perpetrator; punish him HARD.

Hope things are at least somewhat happy at your place.

iPrincess Vyssa/i

bThe 12th Day of the Month of Relaxing/b

Vyssa,

Coltzan died? I can't believe it… I thought he'd live forever too! He showed me kindness, gave me shelter, and didn't try to stop me when I snuck out of Sakhmet that night. I had to leave quickly because I received an urgent Pteri-carrier message about something terrible happening at the underground shelter I live in, but it turns out it was all a hoax. Speaking of my Dynasty, I've managed to rebuild a small portion of what was the former palace out of all the pieces of spare ruin that littered the surrounding area. It may not be as mighty, but at least it's something.

I hope to visit again for his funeral; here's hoping that it's after I finish hauling in some Maraquan coral for the palace!

iSankara/i

bThe 20th Day of the Month of Relaxing/b

Good news Sankara!

We've nabbed the horrible person who killed daddy. It turns out it was Advisor Wessle; all of the clues we've found that were mysteriously left in obvious places and they point to him. He's being locked in Sakhmet dungeons forever; there's no escape for a murderer.

I've also just been appointed the Queen over Sakhmet, though everybody is still calling me Princess Vyssa because nobody knows how long it will take for the city's council to find a new king.

Coltzan's funeral will take place soon; I'll send you a Pteri telling you to come when the date is closer.

Lots of love!

iVyssa/i

bThe 13th Day of the Month of Swimming/b

Good news Vyssa!

Using your term… that's awesome Flotsam that you've managed to arrest someone already. I thought it'd take a long time considering the magnitude of such a crime. I do hope you're doing well as the new Queen?

Anyways, it's also awesome Flotsam (for me, at least) that the entire palace of the Fourth Khonsu Dynasty has been rebuilt! Every last room, every last chamber, every last pantry… they're all whole once more. It really was lucky for us; the Maraquan ship that brought us all of the coral ended up crashing into some boulders, and that they ended up accidentally giving us ten times the amount of coral we had originally ordered. The crew on the ship was also very strong and helped my soldiers rebuild the entire thing in about a week, using all of the coral and some of the coral from the ships. Now, I'm sitting in the throne room, on the royal throne, looking around what is once again my hall, even if it is made out of coral and sand!

But here's the bad news: a Pteri came and told me that whatever invaded my kingdom before is planning a second invasion now that the palace has been rebuilt. They will strike in what I've heard will be 2 weeks, and who knows what they'll do to all my hard work. I've got all the soldiers I've brought with me and the crew from the Maraquan ship, but that is hardly enough to fight a swarm of who-knows-what.

You have to help me Vyssa, you just have to!

From,

iSankara/i

bThe 16th Day of the Month of Swimming/b

Sanksy-manksy,

Life as a queen… is PRETTY TERRIBLE. They won't let me go clothes-shopping anymore, because they think that I might be usurped next. I just have to sit in daddy's old chair all day and listen to the complaints of about a million spastic citizens. Am I actually supposed to care about who stole Farmer Minken's sheep and about a disturbing swarm of gigantic insects headed towards your Kingdom? No! These people honestly need lives.

As for YOUR problem, my dear half-sister, I will send an army of soldiers that will arrive in half-a-week's march. I wish you all the best in your battle.

iLuck from Princess Vyssa/i XOXOXO

bThe 2nd Day of the Month of Hiding/b

Vyssa,

We did it… we won. A gigantic swarm of bugs appeared on the horizon, stirring up a huge sandstorm, only two days after the troops you sent us arrived. We ran out to meet them, shooting arrows and brandishing swords. Spears clanged against horns; arrows and corrosive acid from the bug's bodies met in mid-air; it was a long and epic battle. Once we eliminated one bug, another one would take its place. Luckily, all of the creatures were only a foot tall, and after our supplies ran short we just stepped on them until they all fled or were eradicated. We're about to have a celebration banquet right now, and I'm just quickly finishing this Neomail before I rush off.

Ouch Vissy, that must really bite. I don't have much of a kingdom yet, only a large, pink palace to work with. No angry mobs here! At least, not anymore, now that all the bugs have been squashed… You must visit sometime; maybe you can come back with me after Coltzan's funeral.

Sincerely,

iYour Sankara/i

bThe 21st Day of the Month of Hiding/b

Sanksy,

Congrats; now THAT is awesome Flotsam! Not even Coltzan would be able to lead an army of war after only a few weeks of queen ship. You really have grown from the moody, irritable girl you were when you lived at Sakhmet.

I wish you all the best in running your kingdom, as my kingdom is slowly becoming happier now that everyone's gotten over the shock of me being their Queen. I think we finally have grown up from the Princesses we were before, Sankara. We truly are Queens now.

Coltzan's Funeral will take place in only two weeks; I do hope you make it on time. Be sure to wear black; apparently it makes you look thinner! I've tried it on as a new fashion, and everybody's following me. We took some silk and made it super-stretchy, so that one size now fits all.

Sincerely,  
iPrincess Vyssa/i


	4. Wish Upon a Cherry Wish Stick

"Fetch!"

Larry the Blue Gelert chased after the stick his owner threw amongst the rolling foothills of the Endless Plains. Laughing, the Gelert dashed right into a small grove and stopped to sniff at the foot of a large log covered with moss and fungi.

Little did he know that times were about to change.

Finally discovering where the stick had landed, he sprung over the fallen tree and discovered that he was amongst a carpet of sticks. "Well, this isn't too bad," he said to himself. "He threw a Cherry Wish Stick, and most of these are just regular sticks…"

It was easy for Larry to quickly locate the stick, for he had played Fetch many times and had trained at the Swashbuckling Academy, and recently the Mystery Island Training School, for many hours. His reflexes were as sharp as a knife and his movements were quick but nimble. However, Larry was still a loving and humble Neopet, as he had to be to take care of his brother and sisters and, occasionally, his owner if they ever encountered an enemy. Once, he had managed to fight off the Pant Devil and nabbed his owner a shiny Defenders of Neopia trophy for the task.

As the Gelert took the stick inside his mouth, he heard a rambling sound coming from the trees behind him. "Who's there?" he asked, hoping that it wasn't anything stronger than Kasuki Lu. "Show yourself!"

The reply that came was a great deal of muttering and cursing. "Malkus will kill us if we lose that Wish Stick… i_eshfut_/i!"

As two Meercas stumbled out of the trees and tumbled over the log, a great wind began consuming the area. The leaves of the trees whirled around violently.

Then, all was still.

Scared, Larry began looking around, the stick still in his mouth unnoticed. Everything looked the same, but the sky was a strange shade of purple. The Gelert cautiously traipsed from the clearing and headed for the exit to the grove, but he prematurely found it. The grove was now a group of what one could call a spits-worth of trees encased in a purple-tinted opaque glass dome that was _floating _above the ground.

"What's going on?" Larry shouted. His words, however, sounded thin, and it almost seemed to hit an invisible wall in the air. The Gelert's first intention was to get out of the dome.

Combining all of his energy, Larry ran towards the glass, intending to break it. He closed his eyes for the impact. However, he only felt a strange rippling, as if he had ran through a thin sheet of water, and the Gelert opened his eyes to find himself in a completely new world. Where the Endless Plains had been was now an Endless City, with a giant, metallic hamburger and a black rainbow in the far distance at what appeared to be the heart of the city. Around where the grove used to be, there were now small wooden houses, laid down with what looked like a combination of dung and sludge. Waste littered the streets, with Petpetpets jumping around everywhere. There were no Neopets to be seen.

Larry turned around to the Dome to see a sign in front of it. The sign read, "i_A small grove, retained in Year 27, two years after the invasion of the Lord Protector. Now dates to 30 years._/i"

"Thirty years!" Larry thought. "Is this Neopia twenty-one years from now? Or before? Or… this time travel business is so confusing!"

For that was what he concluded must have happened. As he sat down to contemplate the issue, he realized that the Cherry Wish Stick was still in his mouth. Spitting it out, Larry immediately noticed that this was not the same stick that his owner had thrown. It was much harder and smelt different, though in all his euphoria and excitement back in the present (or was it the past?) he must have not noticed.

Larry mumbled to himself, "This stick must have something to do with Malkus Vile or something. Is he this Lord Protector? Did this stick help him take over Neopia?"

Muttering, he closed his eyes and tried to remember what the Meercas had said back when the grove was still a grove. "It must be awfully important to Malkus Vile, if he's willing to murder losers of this stick. And what were they saying right before that strange wind picked up?" Almost unconsciously, Larry put the stick back inside his mouth. "Ishlut? i_Eshfut_/i?"

The strange wind picked up again, and as Larry blinked he found himself in a desolate wasteland. There was no sign of the grove or the dome, though there was a small bump on the ground that looked like it had the same volume of the sign with a small glass shard on top and a leaf so dried it was black. Around it, the city was gone, the rainbow and hamburger in the distance were now crumbled, the sky was green, and the ground was hard, grey and cracked.

Patting away the dust on the bump, he saw that some magic had still kept the years changing, as it now mentioned that the grove was dated to fifty years.

"This is Neopia in Year 50?" Larry exclaimed. Immediately after, he remembered to keep his voice down, but then recalled that there was nobody around to hear him. No Neopets, no owners, no Lord Protector. However, as he turned around, he proved himself wrong. There were, in fact, all three.

A long ways away, there was a steady line of Neopets and owners. With his sharp vision, Larry saw that they were all chained in a line like slaves. Standing above them was a gigantic black mass. Looking up at the sky, the Gelert expected to the see the sun, but instead saw the grinning face of a large green thing with a chicken-like head. He was so enormous that when Larry looked up at the green part of the sky, he realized that it was actually a claw, stretching right above him.

It now seemed like the sky was falling to the Gelert. However, it was falling extremely slowly. "I need to find the right word to bring me back to the present!" Larry thought hastily. Talking aloud would no longer be a wise idea, as he assumed that Dr. Sloth had heard his exclamation. "If going to the future is i_eshfut_/i, then maybe the word for going to the present (or the past) would be i_eshpre_/i?"

A strong wind picked up, and Larry was back in the grove. The Meercas were just picking themselves up from the ground after their stumble over the log; no time had passed. They looked up to see the Cherry Wish Stick in Larry's mouth.

"You! Give that to us!" one of the Meercas shouted. However, his companion picked up another stick from the ground that Larry's owner had originally thrown.

"Nevermind, Heermeedjet; that Gelert must have another one," he declared.

"You're right Meerouladen," Heermeedjet said. "Why are you always so right?"

The Meercas left the clearing, discussing Meerouladen's intelligence. Larry wiped his forehead in relief. As he prepared to go find his owner, a bright light illuminated the clearing, and Fyora the Faerie Queen appeared, the cumulonimbus that was Faerieland in the sky above her.

"Larry the Gelert?" Fyora asked. She continued, after Larry nodded, "You have recently become acquainted with a Cherry Wish Stick that the Space Faerie has dropped into the clutches of Malkus Vile. He initially wanted to use it to go back in time and change the past so that Coltzan's crown would end up belonging to him, but after weeks of searching through old Mystery Island native books and finding the words, Psellia the Air Faerie was able to create a gust to take the stick away from Malkus, though it only ended up in another part of Neopia instead of safe with the Space Faerie.

"Malkus sent Heermeedjet and Meerouladen, the Meerca Brothers, to retrieve the time-travel device, though recently Psellia was able to get it out of their hands and into the grove which we now stand. It just so happens that as Meerouladen cursed, he chose one of the incantations, which brought the holder of the stick at the time, you, to go into the future and see the havoc that Dr. Sloth will wreak in only fourteen years from now."

Larry was amazed by the presence of the Faerie Queen and still shocked from his time traveling, but he still managed to stammer, "Wh – what am I – should I do about this?"

Fyora smiled. "More than you think. The only reason that Dr. Sloth was able to take over Neopia was with the Cherry Wish Stick you now hold. Time is a confusing business for Neopets and owners, but we Faeries are always aware of the proceedings of anything time-related.

"As the Space Faerie was searching for her Wish Stick, she encountered a rift in the time stream: a Blue Gelert, young but valiant, was to discover the device and leave it in a clearing where Dr. Sloth sunbathes regularly. After I saw that you returned to the present from the future, I quickly came to you to give you a mission. I would ask if you accept or not, but as the fate of Neopia is now on your bony shoulders, I will refrain from doing so. Instead, I will merely ask this: are you ready?"

Larry doubted that the Faerie Queen, after the long novel she had just presented to him, would allow him any preparation time if he was not. Instead, he nodded his head, hesitantly at first, and then surely; so surely that the stick fell out of his mouth.

The Faerie Queen smiled again. "Then it is settled. You will go back in time with the word ieshpas/i to the time period immediately after Neopia's first major conflict with Dr. Sloth: the twenty-fourth day of the Month of Hiding, or August as your owner is accustomed to knowing it, or the very first Grundo Independence Day as Grundos everywhere tend to recognize the date, in Year 2. Time is of the essence; already Dr. Sloth, seeking a sunbath, approaches this clearing from his space craft – "

"That's right, you Faerie Freak!" There was a ray of green light, and Dr. Sloth appeared behind of Larry, with his spacecraft, like Fyora's Faerieland, in the sky above him. "You give me that time stick, and I'll let you off with a warning!"

"Oh please, you'll probably just sludge us even if we give it to you," Fyora said, losing the mystical voice she had been using and now using an irritable, significantly less mature one.

Dr. Sloth smirked maliciously. "Now, now, Fyora, no need to jump to conclusions!"

"If I hadn't been doing so for the past fifty years, then I'd be long dead by now!" Fyora snapped back.

"Pah! You're so old you might as well be dead."

"Well, I'm not the one with the liver spots – "

"You leave my liver spots out of this! If you didn't have your – your magical Elay Earth Faerie Facial Cream then you'd have these liver spots too!"

"Actually, Faeries don't have liver spots; they only get wrinkles, which my Elay prevents!"

"Well, it's going to take a whole ocean of Elay to clear up the wrinkles you get."

Fyora blushed. "How would you know?"

Dr. Sloth laughed. "How did you think I knew you were here?"

"Where are the spy orbs?"

"Where aren't they, Fyora?"

"Don't mess with me, Frank."

"Oh, are we on first-name terms now, - "

Fyora's eyes flashed with fire. "You wouldn't dare say it." 

"Try me," Dr. Sloth said, laughing.

"Why you - "

Unobtrusively, Larry stuck the stick back inside of his mouth, and disappeared in a high wind with the word ieshpas/i as Fyora and Dr. Sloth continued to look daggers into each other and argue. The Gelert found himself in a slightly-different Neopia; the glade was now just the log with a mess of sticks underneath it and the sky was a slightly different shade of blue. The grove could be passed off as a small wood.

Suddenly, a shrill voice rang out from behind. Larry wheeled around to find what looked like a yellow spiky ball of fluff with two orange feet jump over the log and right on top of the astonished Gelert.

"What – "

The strange ball of fluff stood up and brushed itself off. "I'm sorry!" it said in a high-pitched, squeaky voice.

"You can talk!" Larry was amazed. "I knew that items could move, but never talk –"

"There are items that can move?" the fluff ball said skeptically. Then, it raised its eyebrow. "Wait a minute, I'm not an item! I'm a Jubjub!"

Larry was amazed. He stepped back and inspected the thing that had just crashed through the grove to the clearing. It was, in fact, a Jubjub. It just appeared to be a little outdated compared to the ones he had left behind in Year 9. And this Jubjub... "No, it can't be," Larry thought, disbelieving. He had to make sure.

"What's your name?" Larry asked politely. "Where's your owner?"

"Name's Clide," the Jubjub said happily, but soon after he appeared crestfallen. "My owner's getting me a- a-…"

"A what?"

"A… Brown Weewoo!"

It took Larry a moment to remember that he was in the past. Of course they hadn't made White Weewoos yet! "That's horrible!" Larry exclaimed, putting on an act. Then he bent down and winked. "Maybe if you hold on to it for a while, you'll get a chance to paint it White."

Clide still looked sad. "I doubt that day will ever come."

Larry smiled. "Oh, trust me, it will."

As suddenly as Clide appeared, Larry heard a rustling sound from behind him and turned around to see an owner, no more than twelve years of age and clutching a Weewoo, trip over the log and land on top of the two Neopets.

"So sorry!" the owner said to Larry in an identical voice to his Jubjub, for he was Clide's owner. The owner now turned to his Neopet and said, "Clide, you can't keep running away from me! This Weewoo cost me a lot of dubloons, you know. I could be training you, or buying a Christmas Paint Brush to paint you, or buying you better food than omelettes!"

"I don't want a Weewoo though!"

The owner crossed his arms and put the Weewoo back inside his inventory. "Well, fine then. I'll just give it to the next pet I get. Come on, Clide, we're going home."

It was at this time that the owner turned to Larry. "I do beg your pardon – " he began, but stopped when he caught the look on Larry's face. Larry had been paralyzed by the appearance of the owner. He looked exactly like a younger version of his own owner.

"What is it? Are you looking for something? Did you drop something?" the owner asked, perturbed.

"I – I…"

"Yes, yes, spit it out!" the owner said, not coldly.

"I – need to find – "

"The moon? Are you waiting for NeoSchool? That's still in preparation, you know."

"I need to find the Space Faerie – "

"Oh, the Space Faerie!" the owner laughed. "I just saw her at the Grundo Adoption Center as I was adopting one of the last remaining Grundos. Would you like me to take you to her? I still have a bit of time before I have to meet my NeoCircle friends for a game of Techo Says." The owner almost pitied the Gelert and his strange ways; he did not bother asking why Larry had made such a request.

Larry did not usually stutter, but this situation was just too awkward. "Yeah – um – sure – if you want – if it's not too much trouble – "

The owner laughed at what he presumed to be shyness on Larry's part. "Then I'll gladly take you to her!" He took Larry by the paw as Clide jumped on to his head. "I hope you washed your feet," the owner said as he dragged both Neopets from the grove.

Once they were outside, the Gelert found himself in a slightly new environment than the one he had left behind. The Endless Plains were still endless and plain, but the air smelt somewhat cleaner, the sky looked somewhat nicer, Neopia Central looked significantly smaller far in the distance, and a strange fog hung to the south where the Haunted Woods and Lost Desert worlds were.

"Nobody ever ventures too far south, you know," the owner said, replying to Larry's seeking look. "You must have been sitting in that grove for a while!"

"Yeah – sure," Larry stammered back. The owner smiled again, and out of his inventory he took a Spiced Apple Pie. Raising it above his head, a ray of light shot out from the sky and enveloped the owner and the two Neopets. Larry was not used to this; he had visited the Space Station before, but never in such a way. He could feel himself being dragged through the sky and thought it worse than using the Cherry Wish Stick to travel through time.

"There you go," the owner said after a few uncomfortable moments. "The Space Faerie is right over there." The boy pointed at a dark-skinned Faerie dressed in a blue jumpsuit.

Larry stammered, "Thank – thank- "

"It's no problem, really," the owner smiled. "I'd best be going now, Techo Says awaits me…"

As he held up a hamburger, Larry heard Clide asking, "Can we get a Gelert?"

For some strange reason, Larry felt that his future owner was grinning as he said, "Maybe one day, Clide."

As his future floated away to Neopia Central behind him, Clide approached the Space Faerie. She was just giving the last of the Grundos to a strange, green owner dressed in a large black smock. "Thankee," the owner said, his voice muffled by his wardrobe.

"No problem, sir," the Space Faerie said with a bow. After the owner left, she looked at Larry, and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Gelert, but all of the Grundos are gone now."

"That's not why I'm here." Larry was about to continue, but the Space Faerie interrupted.

"The Cherry Wish Stick isn't here either."

Larry spluttered and stammered harder than ever now. "What – Cherry – Stick –"

The Space Faerie made a noise that sounded like 'tcha'. "Duh, I know! I made it, or I'm, about to, at least. That's why it's not here. And I suppose you want me to not make it?"

The Gelert shook his head but then quickly nodded. Intimidated, he said, "If – if you really –"

The Space Faerie laughed. "The only reason I made it was because of all the pent-up energy inside of me. When too much magical pressure builds up in my body, I'll explode. If it's really going to change the future too much, I'll resort to making it much less powerful."

"Would you really?" Larry asked. It seemed as if all his problems were going to be solved.

"Of course," the Space Faerie said. "All I'm going to need you to do is sell this Christmas Paint Brush for three-thousand Neopoints and purchase, not a Cherry Wish Stick, but an Oak Wish Stick." She turned around and handed him a Christmas Paint Brush, as well as three totem heads. "You'll need these to get to Mystery Island, where you should be able to perform both those tasks. After you have finished, leave Mystery Island and use the totems to return to me."

As soon as the paint brush was put away and all of the totems were safe in his grasp, Larry felt himself fading away again, and instantly found himself at the Island Trading Post. The Space Station was floating peacefully through the Neopian sky, a barely recognizable blot in the clear blue.

Larry entered the Trading Post, and soon came out three-thousand Neopoints richer. The unnamed Island Faerie happily pointed him to the Tiki Tack Shop, way on the other side of the island.

As Larry passed through the jungle, he saw many strange things. New kinds of fruits that he had never seen before grew on the trees; some of them even looked completely flat without any shading at all, while others seemed to shift shape. Strange Neopets he had never seen before, such as what looked like an owner with a yellow bowtie and an eye with wings, passed by with odd petpets that changed into things (such as hammers and jelly beds) on their heads. The Gelert felt threatened in this environment, and increased his walking speed.

When he passed large blank clearings where he knew the Kitchen Quest and Mynci Volleyball areas were supposed to be, he gave a shudder. He really wasn't in Year 9. Larry had known this all along, but he still wished that this was just some kind of prank, with everyone playing along. However, those gigantic gaps were irreplaceable; the truth finally hit him. In an earlier age, he might have simply had a breakdown and lay on the ground in tears, but he had to be strong. The fate of Neopia, after all, was on his shoulders.

The Tiki Tack Shop finally came into view. An Oak Wish Stick purchase and another transport to Virtupets Space Station later, a magical Oak Wish Stick was in Larry's mouth.

"This Oak Wish Stick will only allow you to travel through time once. However, you may find it still has a few magical properties, so tell the Meerca Brothers to treat it well. i_Eshpre_/i."

bPRESENT/b

Larry nearly spat out the stick in wonder, and he did when he found himself back in the clearing in the grove amongst the modern day Endless Plains. "What?"

Voices came from behind him yet again. Turning around, Meerouladen was shouting, "Heermeedjet, you nitwit! You picked up a normal Cherry Wish Stick!"

"You're the one that picked it up!" The two Meerca brothers tripped over the log as they stumbled back into the clearing, just as Clide and his owner had seven years before. "You, there, Gelert!" Heermeedjet said. "Where's our Cherry Wish Stick?"

With a pang, Larry realized that he never knew what happened to the Wish Stick he had left behind in Year 2. Had it simply disappeared, since the Space Faerie never made it? Larry was about to splutter an answer to the Meerca when Merouladen yelled excitedly, "There's a magical-looking Oak Wish Stick over there! I bet that's even ibetter/i than cherry wood!"

Heermeedjet grinned happily. "You're right, Meerouladen. You're always right."

Once again, they trampled back through the forest. As Larry never saw them again, they quickly faded from his thoughts, but he never did discover that the Oak Wish Stick, when they were about to give it to their boss, had one last trick up its sleeve. Nobody ever saw the Meerca Brothers in Year 9 again.

"Larry!" His owner tripped over the log as he stumbled into the clearing. Larry went up and gave him a big hug. "Where have you been? Does it really take you this long to find a Cherry Wish Stick?"

"Well…"

"Oh, it's okay," his owner said, smiling. As he stood up, he looked around the clearing. "Say, does this place look familiar?"

Larry turned around to hide the grin that he could not help away from his owner. In the most stable voice he could manage, he asked, "What makes you say that?"

Larry's owner shrugged. "It's just… nothing. Come on, let's go home. Clide's probably worried sick by now."

The sun set as they went home.


End file.
